H.R.H. Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his aides visited Japan in February this year. The Crown Prince and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a joint statement about promoting mutual assistance for small and medium-sized businesses in both countries at that time. Asthefirststeptowardstheembodimentofthestatement,atourofSaudiAra-bia for the Japanesemanagersof small andmedium-sizedbusinesses, labeled asthe1stSMESaudiArabiaBusinessMatchingTour,wascarriedout. Inthepast,onlythemanagersofbigJapanesecompanieswereinvitedbySaudiArabia.Thisisthefirstattemptforourdelegation,includingtwofemalemembers,to enter the country. When I heard that the other female entrepreneur and I would bethefirstJapanesefemalebusinesspersonstoSaudiArabia,Ifelthonoredandatthe same time humbled. WeleftJapanonSeptember5th,whenthelingeringheatofsummerwasstillterrible,pinningthehopesofofficialsandthepeopleonestablishingbetterfriend-ship with our counterparts.

It is not easy to enter a country where tourist visas are not issued, and what is more, for women to be allowed to do so. Mrs. Miyuki Miyoshi of Miyo-shi Fish Farm gives us a unique glimpse into a country veiled in mystery. From the standpoint of a woman, she tells us what she saw and how Nishiki-goi are received there by the people of the country.

Mr. Toru Shiraishi and the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Japan, extraordinary and plenipotentiary, Mr. Turk is tan i , were fe l low students. Their friendship made this tour materialize.

The capital of the country, Riyadh

The participants of the tour at Narita International Airport

Miyuki Miyoshi Travels in Saudi Arabia First Part

(by editorial staff)

Syria Iran

UnitedArabEmirates

Iraq

Saudi Arabia

Jordan

Sudan

EritreaYemen

Oman

RiyadhJiddah

Arrival at the capital city, Riyadh Asourplane’saltitudegradually lowered, thevastdesertspreadoutas farastheeyecouldreach.Whilegazingatthedarkshapesdottingthelandscape,whichIguessedmustbecamels,myeyessuddenlycaughtamagnificentsight,KingKha-lid International Airport. SaudiArabia covers roughly80percent of theArabianPeninsula,most ofwhichisdesert.Itscapital,Riyadh,isanoasiscity. Whenwesteppedoutoftheairportbuilding,wewereaccostedbythestiflingheat,whichreached45degreesCelsius.TheheatremindedmethatIwasinafor-eign country known for its scorching climate.

Abaya & hijab InSaudiArabia,peopleobeystrict Islamic precepts. Foreign-ers are no exception. Wearing an abaya is a legal duty for women. The ethnic costume, abaya, islike a black gown in which their skin can be protected from the direct rays of the sun. Women are further prohibited from exposing their face andhair inpublic, sothey use a hijab to cover the face and head. Most of the women there are exposing only their eyes through an opening in the hijab.

At the arrival at Riyadh Airport

A local woman in abaya and hijab

Shozo Miyoshi and a Syrian tour guide. She says it is prohib-ited for the visitors to stare at women or to take a photo of them in Saudi Arabia, but she accepted our re-quest with good grace.

The people bubble over with excitement about their vast economic growth

I enjoyed looking at the scenery from the bus window. The capital city is now underarushtobuildmodernizedbuildings,owingtoabundantnaturalresources.

Visiting National Museum andAl Jazeera newspaper company building

WefirstvisitedtheNationalMuseum.Inthespaciousmodernbuilding,wesawa lot of archaeological and historical exhibits. After that,weheaded for theAl Jazeerabuilding.Wewere interviewed in agorgeousroom.Mr.ToruShiraishi,headofourgroup,isamemberoftheHouseofRepresentatives.Hedeclaredourdetermination,whichwas reportedbyAlJazeera and the local newspaper the next day.

In the assembly room of Al Jazeera

The tour participants listen to the enthusiastic explanation made by the curator of the museum.

One of the exhibits of the Museum, Roses in the Desert (above left)Crystallization of a certain substance in desert makes rose-shaped stone.

A beautiful mosque stands between new buildings under construction.

Kingdom Tower is the tallest building in Saudi Arabia. The 302 meter building was completed in 2002.

Dinner at the Japanese embassy WereceivedalavishwelcomepartyattheJapaneseembassyonthefirsteve-ning. The embassy building is fenced off with barbed wire and guarded by armed men. Passingthroughheavily-armedguards,weenteredtheembassybuilding,wherewe were in a different world. The rooms were elegantly furnished in a Japanese-styledesign.Dinnerwasservedinthecourtyard,whereamistofwaterwaspour-ing from the top in order to temper the night-heat.

Ms. Akaba (right) runs an ultra-precision procession company, which manufactures the dust collection capsule loaded on the crewless Japanese space probe, Hayabusa.

The lady on the right is a Sau-di Arabian entrepreneur. She was exceedingly pleased with this koi-printed towel gift.

Visiting Saudi Arabia General Investment Assembly Onthesecondday,weproceededtoSAGIA,whichissuesinvestmentlicensesto investors who are planning to establish their business footholds in Saudi Ara-bia.WereceivedapreciseexplanationoftheSAGIAsystemand,afterthat,hadaquestion-and-answer session at the headquarters. I tried tomakediscreet advertisements forNishikigoi betweenquestions.Assoonaswespreadafewlife-sizedpostersofNishikigoi,Ifeltasuddenchangeofthe atmosphere in the room. TheirrepliestomyquestioniftheyknowNishikigoiwere“Isitdelicious?”or“Doyoueatitwithwasabi?”TheyseemtohavenoknowledgeaboutNishikigoi.ItriedtoimpressthemwiththebeautyofNishikigoi,butfeltashamedthatIwassohelpless. After the session,when Iwas leaving the room lookingdisheartened, oneoftherepresentativesofSAGIAcalledtometostopandaskedfortheposters.Ipre-sentedhimaking-sizedcalendar,sponsoredbyRINKOmagazine, insteadof theposters.Hesaid,“Thankyouverymuch.NowIcanshowthesebeautifulfish tomyfamily.”Hiswordsgavemeconfidence.

A banner, prepared by people at SAGIA, for the event

The head of Small and Medium-sized Businesses Agency, Mr. Shinsuke Kitagawa.He helped me when I was at a loss for words during my presentation about Nishikigoi.

(SAGIA)

A trip to observe the MODON industrial complex On theafternoonof the secondday,wevisited two factories in thecomplex.Thefirstfactorymanufacturesouterwallmaterialsbystrikingironplatesuntiltheyare thin. Theotherfactoryproducesahigh-rankingchocolate,whichisfilledwithsweetfragrance. Fine-shaped chocolate bars came out one after another. We enjoyed a tasting to recover from the fatigue of our tour.

An invitation fromthe agent of Nissan

and Isuzu automobile dealership

In the evening,wewere in-vitedbyMr.Shiraishi’s friend,Mr.Najib,whoistheCEOoftheNissan& Isuzu automobiledeal-ership in Saudi Arabia. We first visited theNissan showroomandthen his villa. We were astonished

bythemagnificentfeast.

The dishes and art objects filling the floor of the banquet ground

The banquet ground was spread all over with Persian carpet.

A roasted lamb

In this spacious factory, many employees are foreigners.

Japanese tour participants received a welcome sword dance performance.

Mr. Najib

Shozo Miyoshi holds a real falcon on his hand in a desert-race’s tent set up on the banquet ground.

Business matching at Riyadh Chamber

of Commerce On the third day,wehad our f i rs t bus iness matching. Owing to atten-tive advertisement by the newspapers and the online news, itwas a great suc-cess. Before the start of the matching,wewere inter-viewed by the local news-paper. During the matching session, our Nishikigoibooth was visited by many people, but theyhave noknowledgeofNishikigoi.We made full use of the iPad andNishikigoi cal-endar in order to explain abou t Nish ik igo i . Myheart leaped to hear people shout, “HowbeautifulNi-shikigoiare!”

The local newspaper articles

Visitors at the Nishikigoi booth waiting for their turn

A hearty welcome in Saudi Arabian the way They treated us with dried dates. I heard the fruit has been grown since 4,000B.C.Becausethefruiteasilygrowsinaridregionsandbecomesperish-ablewhenitisdried,itmusthavebeenpreciousfoodforthepeoplelivinginoases. Dates are usually served with Arabian coffee. Around the end of the 15th century,Muslimswereprohibitedfromdrinkingalcohol,sotheydrankcoffeeasaluxury.Later,coffeewasintroducedtonorthandsouthAmerica.

Departure for the next destination After thebusinessmatching session,wemade aninspection at the factory for Japanese daily necessities company,Unicharm, and leftRiyadh forKingAbdu-laziz International Airport.

At Riyadh Airport before leaving for Jeddah

Today we use roasted coffee beans to makecoffee,but inSaudiArabia, theyuseraw beans. I was told that drinking three small-sized cups of amber-colored Arabian coffee is etiquette towards the host. Dates A cup of Arabian

coffee

Local newspapers and on-line news reported about our tour day after day.

Saudi Arabian people have enormous confidence in Japanese products.Part of Unicharm’s prod-ucts sold in Saudi Arabia